1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet processing apparatus in which a plurality of sheets of a plurality of types are loaded together, and which sorts the sheets according to sheet types and states such as unfitness degrees or orientations, and collects the sorted sheets in a plurality of cassettes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a bill processing apparatus as a sheet processing apparatus is an apparatus which sorts a plurality of bills of a plurality of types according to conditions such as bill type or the state of bills. Such a bill processing apparatus has a plurality of cassettes assigned in accordance with the conditions of bills (type or the state of bills). In the above bill processing apparatus, a discrimination unit discriminates the type or state of bills, and the respective bills are collected in the respective cassettes on the basis of the discrimination results.
The assignment of conditions (bill type or state) of bills to the respective cassettes in the above bill processing apparatus is preferably changed in accordance with user's demands or a plurality of bills to be processed as circumstances demand. If, for example, it is expected that a plurality of bills to be processed will include many bills of a specific bill type, the bill type of bills expected to be included in large quantity is assigned to a cassette with which an operator can easily work. This makes it possible for the operator to easily work with the cassette which is filled to capacity with a high frequency. If the sheet processing apparatus is equipped with a sealing device which seals a predetermined number of bills, the type of bills expected to be included in large quantities in a plurality of bills to be processed is assigned as a bill type for which sealing is performed by the sealing device. This makes it possible to efficiently perform processing up to the sealing process after the sorting process with respect to bills of the bill type to be processed in the greatest quantity.
In the conventional bill processing apparatuses, however, the assignment of the conditions (bill type or state) of bills to a plurality of cassettes is fixed or can be changed only by special operation. Therefore, demands have arisen for an apparatus which allows easy setup of the conditions of bills to be assigned to the respective cassettes, as circumstances require in accordance with user's demands or a plurality of bills to be processed.